A New Concept for Digital Interaction
Developer and poet Berkay Doğan has launched the hereby app for iOS, a social media platform radically based on geolocation, aiming to reconnect digital content consumption with physical places. Unlike traditional social media platforms that allow access to content from anywhere in the world, the app imposes strict spatial constraints; digital notes left by users cannot be read unless another person approaches within approximately 300 meters of the specified location.
What Distinguishes the hereby Experience?
The app is free from typical social media mechanisms such as likes, followers, or infinite feed algorithms. Instead, it focuses on:
- Location-Linked Messages: Users can leave texts in public places such as sidewalks or parks, and these texts only appear to actual visitors of those locations.
- "Leave for Someone" Feature: Allows users to send private messages linked to a specific geographic location, where the recipient cannot read the message until they go to the specified point, adding a physical dimension to digital correspondence.
- Poetry Trails: The app provides an "İz Yolları" (Trace Trails) feature, where the developer has created literary paths in areas such as Kadıköy and Beşiktaş, where lines of poetry appear to users upon reaching specific points on the walking route.
Privacy and Technical Infrastructure
The app adopts a strict approach to privacy; it does not request personal data such as email or phone numbers, nor does it display the user's exact location, instead using an approximate range of 150 meters. Additionally, the app prohibits leaving any notes in the vicinity of schools or private homes, and data is stored within the European Union.
Technically, the app was developed using Apple's SwiftUI, relying on MapKit for maps. The backend infrastructure is based on Supabase, using a PostgreSQL database with the PostGIS extension to process geospatial queries.
Why Does This News Matter?
The hereby app represents a technical trend contrary to the pattern of rapid digital consumption, as it attempts to transform the physical world into an interactive digital space. The developer plans to use this project in a future initiative called writtenby., which aims to collect the notes left by users in Istanbul to turn them into a printed book by the end of 2027, reflecting an attempt to integrate technology into the literary and social documentation of cities.